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Guinea Bissau court upholds PM nomination

Guinea-Bissau’s supreme court has upheld the nomination of Prime Minister Baciro Dja, bolstering President Jose Mario Vaz in a power struggle with a rival former prime minister.

Vaz appointed Dja in May after sacking then Prime Minister Carlos Correia, a move that further divided the ruling PAIGC party and which Correia denounced as a “constitutional coup d’etat”.

The court ruled that the legal proceedings brought by the PAIGC party against the nomination of Dja are null and void and therefore inadmissible.

The legal proceedings brought by the PAIGC (against the nomination) are null and void and therefore inadmissible.

“The legal proceedings brought by the PAIGC are null and void and therefore inadmissible,” the court ruled late on Friday, according to a decision broadcast on local radio.

“The presidential decree that appointed Baciro Dja as head the government of Guinea-Bissau is indeed constitutional.”

Vaz sacked Correia and his government on May 12, saying they had proved incapable of managing a months-long political crisis, caused partly by the overlapping duties of the president and prime minister in a semi-presidential system.

The United Nations fears a protracted political crisis will trigger unrest.

Guinea-Bissau has been rocked by numerous coups and attempted coups since independence in 1974 and no democratically elected leader has served a full term.